Ingo Maurer - 24 Karat Blau suspension lamp

24 Karat Blau by designer Axel Schmid for Ingo Maurer is part and namesake of the golden 24 Karat Blau luminaire family. Metal, four plates with gold leaf cast into acrylic glass: the luminaire's trims each have four holes with which they can be hung from the red rod cross at different angles, in portrait or landscape format. The 24 carat blue trims are individually handcrafted. Gold leaf is real gold. It is beaten out very thinly with a hammer by gold beaters. The gold leaf is beaten 1/10,000 mm thin - the equivalent of 1,000 atomic layers - so that short-wave blue light can shine through between the molecules, while yellow-gold light is reflected. Due to the special beating technique of the gold, the wafer-thin gold leaf has a wonderful pattern in the shape of a star. Axel Schmid deliberately used real gold: "With real gold, the energy stays there - inside the luminaire. No gold lacquer can imitate that. In addition, with real gold there is the surface structure. With the combination of plastic, valuable gold is brought into a household format, which is easy to use and maintain." A great contrast to gold is provided by the colours red (rods and cables) and blue (light point). The 24 Karat Blau can be extended as desired: 24 Karat Blau M is the name of the set that expands a single 24 Karat Blau into a larger hanging lamp.

Axel Schmid

Axel Schmid was born in 1971 in Nassau/Bahamas. After a practical training in metal and wood working, he studied industrial design at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste Stuttgart in the classes of Prof. Klaus Lehmann and Prof. Richard Sapper. He graduated 1997 and gained a scholarship to Japan from the German Industrial Design association VDID. In 1998 he started working for Ingo Maurer in Munich. He gave various workshops and was teaching at different design schools. He received various awards, amongst others the Bavarian State Award for young designers.

Ingo Maurer

Since the mid-1960s he has been creating special lamps and unique pieces that as an entrepreneur he produces and distributes worldwide.Since 1970 the headquarters of Ingo Maurer GmbH in Munich has been in the Schwabing district. A few years ago, however, the production and shipping departments moved to the outskirts of Munich having become in 2005 too cramped for space in the back yard at Kaiserstrasse 47.It has two large showrooms-the second after New York and the only one in all of Europe.
From creating lamps and lighting systems, setting up exhibitions and trade show appearances has been an increasing demand for the realization of designs, lighting planning and interior architectural work. Today, projects are an important component of our business.